Attribute Development

Attributes should reect the essential dimensions of a code. The development of attributes is therefore guided by an appropriate conceptual model or pro-cess (Terjesen , 2007). The propro-cess of developing thorough and measurable attributes is established based on the limited available literature by Abiiro (2014) and Hennink (2011) on attribute development. The rst step is to develop a set of conceptual attributes inductively by investigating literature and identifying similarities between codes (Abiiro et al. 2014; Hennink 2011).

It is important to not simply apply the concepts gathered from literature, but rather to compare categories emerging from data with those from the literature (Hennink , 2011). By doing this, the researcher ensured that categories are well rooted in the data by rening and rethinking the categories that are be-ing developed. The list of attributes are rened deductively through interviews and discussions with research participants. When the nal list of attributes is established, categories are developed based on shared attributes between codes.

Based on the above, the conceptual attributes gathered inductively and de-ductively through research literature, data collection and similarities between codes are: knowledge, culture, teamwork, communication, decision making, responsibility/ accountability, awareness, feedback, strategy, adaptability, en-gagement, learning opportunities and shared values (Rogel, 2014). These at-tributes are used to characterise the codes in table 5.15.

Table 5.15: Codes characterised by attributes.

Code Attributes Description

Update Responsibility Together with the responsibility of executing a job, lies the responsibility to keep stakeholders updated with information regarding that job or activity.

Feedback When a work order is completed, feedback must be given regarding the work done.

Strategy For all stakeholders to be kept up to date, a strategy must be in place.

Teamwork It is a team eort and the responsibility of all stakeholders to keep each other updated.

Feedback Feedback The `feedback' attribute is inevitably a char-acteristic of the `feedback' code.

Culture The discipline of giving proper feedback, is re-lated to an employee's culture.

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Code Attributes Description

Engagement Employees tend to give more and better feed-back when they are fully engaged.

Teamwork Feedback is a teamwork eort and the one characteristic depends on the other and vice versa.

Lack of Knowledge Knowledge An overall lack of knowledge regarding profes-sional conduct on how to communicate.

Strategy A strategy must be set in place as to how knowledge will be advanced throughout the supply chain.

Learning Opportuni-ties

Which learning opportunities are there to in-crease the knowledge of employees and stake-holders?

Shared

Val-ues All employees should carry knowledge of the shared values of the organisation, specically knowledge of the values regarding communi-cation.

Role Denition Knowledge Employees often have uncertainties regarding what is included in their role description.

Decision

Making Processes are often slowed down due to the fact that certain decisions can only be made by people in certain roles.

Engagement When employees are certain about their roles and know what they are responsible for, they tend to be more engaged.

Responsibility If roles are clearly dened, it is easier to keep colleagues accountable for the things they are responsible for.

Volume of Role

Players Knowledge A lot of knowledge is spread accross the large volume of role players, but is not always shared.

Strategy Without a communication strategy, a large number of role players will not be able to keep track of information ow and execute eective communication.

Teamwork With a large number of role players, good teamwork is imperitive.

Shared

Val-ues It is important that everyone shares the same values.

Cloud Volume of

Information Knowledge Role Players lack knowledge of things they need to be aware of, as the information ex-ists, but is not shared with the role players/

stakeholders.

Decision

Making Information often exists, but is not shared with all stakeholders. Thus, it happens that decisions need to be made, but the informa-tion that supports the decision has not yet reached the decision maker.

Feedback Feedback is not given as often as needed, thus new information is available, but is not shared.

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Code Attributes Description

Interdependent Decision

Making Decisions cannot be made in isolation, thus the process of decision making and executing urgent orders is slowed down.

Responsibility All stakeholders are dependent on each other in some way and are all accountable for shar-ing information with each other.

Teamwork In all circumstances, all work that is done is a team eort, thus all stakeholders are inter-dependent on the work and dedication of the others.

Lack of Experience Knowledge Employees often lack knowledge in certain

elds in which they do not have any experi-ence.

Strategy A strategy must be set in place to bridge the gap between the lack of knowledge due to lack of experience.

Decision

Making Employees with lack of experience lacks the knowledge to make decisions in a certain eld.

Teamwork Employees often work together in a team where their elds of experience are dierent.

As a result, they struggle to understand each other and are often not on the same page.

Language and Culture Culture A dierence in culture leads to dierent ways of communicating, which creates a great gap between employees in understanding each other.

Knowledge The great gap of misunderstanding could be bridged if employees have knowledge of each other's language and culture, and of the com-munication culture that the organisation aims to instill.

Adaptability All employees need to be adaptable to meet and understand each other in the midst of their dierences.

Engagement The dierences in language and culture of-ten inuence, the engagement of employees as they do not always understand what they must do.

Shared

Val-ues Shared values regarding how to communicate, give feedback and so forth, diers among dif-ferent cultures, as well as knowledge back-ground.

Urgency Feedback Feedback is not given quickly enough, leading to a lack in sense of urgency.

Knowledge Due to lack of knowledge of certain scenarios, employees do not comprehend the urgency of a situation.

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Code Attributes Description

Teamwork When working in a team, stakeholders should keep each other updated as new and relevant information comes to light. The sense of ur-gency to keep stakeholders updated is not the same for all employees.

Decision

Making Decisions often have to be made urgently for the process to continue.

Engagement Engagement Engangement is inevitably an attribute of the

`Engagement' code.

Culture The dierence in language and culture of-ten inuences the engagement of employees, as they do not always understand what they must do.

Shared

Val-ues Not all employees are equally engaged and share the same values or take the values of the company equally seriously.

Teamwork Engagement is often a team eort. If manage-ment is engaged and that engagemanage-ment could overow to other employees, they will also

in-uence each other.

Incomplete

Information Feedback Feedback is not given as often as needed. New information is available, but is not shared, which leads to gaps in information.

Knowledge Employees and stakeholders do not have the knowledge of which information should be shared, thus they correspond but do not share all the relevant information.

Volume of Priorities Teamwork Colleagues that work together have their in-dividual volume of priorities and often nd it dicult to work together when work that needs to be done does not hold the same level of priority to each of them individually.

Responsiblity Employees have a large volume of responsibili-ties they need to attend to, and therefore they are not always able to update fellow employees and stakeholders.